IraqInsurgents in Iraq killed at least 24 people in a wave of ambushes and bomb blasts in Baghdad yesterday, the latest attacks in a surge of violence that has greeted the formation of a new Iraqi cabinet.
In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber strapped with explosives blew himself up at an army recruitment centre at a former airfield in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 15. Suicide bombers have repeatedly targeted crowds of Iraqis queuing to join the security forces.
Gunmen also ambushed a police convoy, shooting dead 10 policemen and setting their vehicles ablaze. And a car bomb was detonated as the deputy interior minister's convoy drove past, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding six people, police said.
Over the past week guerrillas have stepped up their campaign of violence, defying predictions that the insurgency would crumble following January's elections and the formation of a new cabinet. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed 60 people in an attack on a Kurdish political party office and police recruitment centre in the northern town of Arbil, and a car bomb in southern Baghdad killed nine Iraqi soldiers.
Iraq's new cabinet was formally sworn in on Tuesday, a move Iraqi and US officials hoped would improve stability. But squabbling among competing factions had caused a three-month delay in installing the cabinet - a hiatus exploited by the insurgents.
Although a cabinet is finally in place, five portfolios have yet to be filled, including the defence and oil ministries, as rival political blocs continue to bicker.
Government officials said decisions were taken on the oil, electricity and human rights ministries, and the full cabinet line-up would be announced as early as Friday once a defence minister was agreed upon.
In a decision likely to stir new controversy over the US military justice system, the 1st Marine Division said no charges would be filed against a marine who shot three wounded and unarmed Iraqi prisoners in a mosque in Falluja during a major American military offensive last November.
One of the shootings was filmed by an NBC journalist. The footage shows an Iraqi prisoner slumped on the floor of the mosque. After yelling that the man was faking death, the marine shot him in the head.The 1st Marine Division said the soldier was acting in self-defence as troops had been warned that some insurgents were feigning death or injury and then attacking.
The ruling follows another controversial US military investigation that exonerated American soldiers who killed an Italian secret service agent at a Baghdad checkpoint in March.
After a joint investigation by US and Italian officials, the US military said its soldiers had followed the correct rules of engagement but Italy refused to endorse the report, and blamed nervous US soldiers and a badly executed roadblock for the incident.
US ally Bulgaria is moving ahead to end its deployment in Iraq. Yesterday, parliament approved a plan to cut troop numbers by next month and withdraw the 450-strong unit completely by the end of the year.